Barysau: monitoring of 'working moments' is banned
Human rights defender Aleh Matskevich
Observer Aleh Matskevich occasionally saw members of
the Barysau Town Election Committee sitting in their room and listening to a
speech of its secretary, Tatsiana Stasava. However, he wasn't admitted to this
sitting, because the secretary called this assembly a 'working moment'.
Aleh Matskevich came to the commission to find about the details of the
verification of signatures in support of the potential candidates for President
of Belarus by the commission. However, the secretary stated that he had no
right to stay in the office of the commission during the 'working moment'. When
he asked what was the difference between a sitting and a 'working moment', he
was told that minutes are usually composed during sittings, but wouldn't be
composed now.
Meanwhile, Article 37 of the Electoral Code that regulates the organization of
the work of the territorial, constituency and precinct election commission
doesn't provide any legal forms of work of the commissions other than sittings.
That's why Mr. Matskevich submitted a written application to the territorial
election commission, in which he asks to tell him what is the name of the forms
of work of the commission that aren't registered in the minutes: stop the aforementioned
practice of violating the norms of the electoral legislation and provide him
with information about the procedure of the verification of the signature
sheets, including the details of distribution of the signature sheets among the
members of the commission and the number of sheets received by each of them.
Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections
